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1 month agoWouldn’t there be at least some Android APIs that they would need to handle too? I wouldn’t expect Android APKs to work natively on Linux even on ARM, but perhaps Valve has already addressed that.
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Right, I’m trying to wrap my head around the idea that Waydroid does some kind of ARM emulation on x86, but now we’re talking about ARM software running on ARM hardware. Can Waydroid itself do this if it’s run on ARM hardware?
Not a video of a Valve employee, but I’ve read at least a couple articles now quoting Valve as saying it will support Android APKs, although I can imagine that this kind of thing could easily be misinterpreted due to some technical detail. This article mentions it: https://www.theverge.com/news/818672/valve-android-apps-steam-frame
Valve says the Steam Frame can use the same Android APKs developers already use to bring their apps to phones and Android-based VR headsets such as the Meta Quest — and it’s launching a Steam Frame developer kit program to help put the hardware in developers’ hands.
It sounds like Valve is specifically hoping to attract some of those Meta VR game developers, rather than just any kind of Android app you might find on a tablet or phone. “They’re really VR developers who want to publish their VR content, and they’re porting a mobile VR title where they’re already familiar with how to make those APKs,” says Selan. “They are now free to bring those to Steam, and they’ll just work on this device.”
The actual quote mentions porting, and the non-quote claims they’re saying “same Android APKs”. It definitely sounds like it could be a misinterpretation of what was said, which is disappointing for a popular tech outlet like The Verge.
Edit: now this video has a Valve quote saying (at 26:03) that APKs will be sideloadable like Steam Deck apparently already does. They also say that they expect VR APKs to work if they don’t use proprietary APIs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWUxObt1efQ
Right, I figured that that was probably what Waydroid was. However, I also figured that it does the translation of ARM code to x86 hardware. Is it capable of skipping that translation entirely to run ARM code directly on ARM hardware as it is now? Does it work well? These are the things that I was entirely unsure about because I’m not very familiar with Waydroid. If you know the answer to these, I would love to hear it.